Title Page, Copyright

Contents

LX: The Commonwealth

The confusions, which overspread England after the murder
of Charles I. proceeded as well from the spirit of refinement
and innovation, which agitated the ruling party, as from the dissolution
of all that authority, both civil and ecclesiastical, by which
the nation had ever been accustomed to be governed. …

LXI

Oliver Cromwel, in whose hands the dissolution of the parliament
had left the whole power, civil and military, of three
kingdoms, was born at Huntingdon, the last year of the former
century, of a good family; though he himself, being the son of a
second brother , inherited but a small estate from his father. …

LXII

All the arts of Cromwel's policy had been so often practised ,
that they began to lose their effect; and his power, instead of
being confirmed by time and success, seemed every day to become
more uncertain and precarious. His friends the most closely connected
with him, and his counsellors the most trusted, were entering
into cabals against his authority;
...

LXIII: Charles II

Charles II, when he ascended the throne of his ancestors, was
thirty years of age. He possessed a vigorous constitution, a
fine shape, a manly figure, a graceful air; and though his features
were harsh, yet was his countenance in the main lively and engaging. ...

LXIV

The next session of parliament discovered a continuance of
the same principles, which had prevailed in all the foregoing.
Monarchy and the church were still the objects of regard and
affection. During no period of the present reign, did this spirit
more evidently pass the bounds of reason and moderation.
...

LXV

Since the restoration, England had attained a situation,
which had never been experienced in any former period of her
government, and which seemed the only one, that could fully
ensure, at once, her tranquillity and her liberty: The king was in
continual want of supply from the parliament;
...

LXVI

If we consider the projects of the famous Cabal, it will appear
hard to determine, whether the end, which those ministers
pursued, were more blameable and pernicious, or the means, by
which they were to effect it, more impolitic and imprudent.
Though they might talk only of recovering or fixing the king's
authority;
...

LXVII

The English nation, ever since the fatal league with France,
had entertained violent jealousies against the court; and the
subsequent measures, adopted by the king, had tended more to
encrease than cure the general prejudices. Some mysterious de sign was still suspected in every enterprize and profession: …

LXVIII.

The king, observing that the whole nation concurred at first in
the belief and prosecution of the popish plot, had found it
necessary for his own safety to pretend, in all public speeches and
transactions, an entire belief and acquiescence in that famous absurdity,
and by this artifice he had eluded the violent and irresistible
torrent of the people. ...

LXIX

When the cabal entered into the mysterious alliance with
France, they took care to remove the duke of Ormond from
the committee of foreign affairs; and nothing tended farther to
increase the national jealousy, entertained against the new measures,
than to see a man of so much loyalty, …

LXX: James II

The first act of James's reign was to assemble the privy
council; where, after some praises bestowed on the memory
of his predecessor, he made professions of his resolution to maintain
the established government, both in church and state. Though
he had been reported, he said, to have imbibed arbitrary principles, ...

LXXI

While every motive, civil and religious, concurred to alienate
from the king every rank and denomination of men, it
might be expected, that his throne would, without delay, fall to pieces by its own weight: But such is the influence of established
government; so averse are men from beginning hazardous enterprizes; ...

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